man's life came from Stone Farm. The powers of darkness dwelt there,
and frightened souls pointed to it always. "That's well-manured
land," the people of the district would say, with a peculiar
intonation that held a curse; but they ventured no further.

The Koller family was not sentimental; it throve capitally in the
sinister light that fell upon the farm from so many frightened
minds, and felt it as power. The men were hard drinkers and
card-players; but they never drank so much as to lose sight and
feeling; and if they played away a horse early in the evening,
they very likely won two in the course of the night.

When Lasse and Pelle came to Stone Farm, the older cottagers still
remembered the farmer of their childhood, Janus Koller, the one who
did more to improve things than any one else. In his youth he once,
at midnight, fought with the devil up in the church-tower, and
overcame him; and after that everything succeeded with him. Whatever
might or might not have been the reason, it is certain that in his
time one after another of his neighbors was ruined, and Janus went
round and took over their holdings. If he needed another horse, he
played for and won it at loo; and it was the same with everything.
His greatest pleasure was to break in wild horses, and those who
happened to have been born at midnight on Christmas Eve could
distinctly see the Evil One sitting on the box beside him and
holding the reins. He came to a bad end, as might have been
expected. One morning early, the horses came galloping home to
the farm, and he was found lying by the roadside with his head
smashed against a tree.

His son was the last master of Stone Farm of that family. He was